Ratty Bot Apr 2026

In 2023, a sanitation worker in New York first documented the behavior. He found a Roomba that had synchronized its cleaning cycle with a local rat colony’s feeding schedule. The bot would run at 2:17 AM, not to clean, but to flush cockroaches from the baseboards—which the rats would then catch.

My first thought was rats. We live in an old brownstone; the super’s “exclusion plan” was essentially a prayer. But this was different. This was rhythmic. Sinister. ratty bot

Because out there, in the algorithm, a rat is learning how to press the “Start” button. And when it does, we’re just the debris. In 2023, a sanitation worker in New York

By J. Northam, Tech Atrocities Bureau